Intelligence

CNN.com - Officials confirm probe of Pentagon memo leak - Nov. 18, 2003

CNN.com - Officials confirm probe of Pentagon memo leak - Nov. 18, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department has received a request for an investigation into who leaked a Pentagon memo that reportedly included some classified information concerning contacts between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday.

An official declined to say which organization requested the investigation into the leaked memo, which was written by Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith and sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee October 27, 2003.

Portions of the 16-page memo were quoted in the November 24 edition of The Weekly Standard.

However, the Pentagon Saturday issued a statement saying the news reports alleging that the Pentagon had confirmed new information on contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq were inaccurate.

The memo reportedly spoke of various possible meetings and contacts between Iraqi intelligence officers and senior al Qaeda figures. The meetings have all been publicly reported in the past, but the memo adds some details which, if accurate, were not known before.

The Pentagon statement said the classified annex in the memo contained only descriptions of "raw reports or products of the CIA, the National Security Agency or, in one case, the Defense Intelligence Agency." But the statement said the memo did not contain an analysis of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda nor did it draw any conclusions.

However, the Standard said the memo detailed a more than decade-long "operational relationship" between then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The conservative journal published brief portions of the memo that were based on information from various people, including a "well placed" source, a debriefed senior Iraqi intelligence officer, and a CIA contact with "good access."

Many of those sections detailed al Qaeda efforts to obtain training in explosives and other weapons and logistical and financial support for terrorist attacks.

The Standard described much of the evidence as "detailed, conclusive and corroborated by multiple sources."

The U.S. official commenting on the request for an investigation of the leak noted that the request could come from any party: the senders of the memo at the Pentagon, its recipients at the Senate Intelligence Committee or the sources of the intelligence cited -- the CIA or NSA (National Security Agency).

National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report.

November 18, 2003 at 11:22 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home